Thursday, August 11, 2016

Who Dressed the Dogs Up?

by Betty Foxx from the Pampered Pets Mystery Series written
by Sparkle Abbey

Is anyone out there? It’s me Betty Foxx, Cookie’s right-hand
Gal Friday at the Bow Wow Boutique. I’m checking in to see if you’ve heard the
news.

See,
there’s been a lot of scuttlebutt around town the past few weeks about the
upcoming annual Laguna Beach Pet Parade. What? You’ve never heard of it? Well,
it’s a big fundraiser for the local animal shelter. The truth is, the parade is
a really a pet contest with prizes for the most handsome, prettiest, and best
costumed pet. I was thinking about entering my own Raider boy in the parade. As
a St. Bernard, he drools…a lot. Some people don’t find that as adorable as I do,
so I decided against the handsomest category, and am going with the best
costume group.

Anyway, back to the gossip. The first time I heard this
little gem, I was sitting on the patio at my favorite coffee shop drinking an
iced caramel macchiato, minding my own business, when I overheard two women
whispering about the parade. I had to lean in a little bit to hear them, but I
swear they said they were on the parade committee and needed another judge.
You’ll never guess who they were thinking about asking. Cookie!

Well, when I heard her name I may have shouted, “no” and
startled the one little gal enough that she spilled her coffee. I offered to
buy her a new one, but she wasn’t interested. I asked if it was true, about
Cookie, but they wouldn’t confirm nor deny.

Don’t get me wrong, Cookie would make a great judge. That’s
the problem. This type of gig is right up her alley. If she agreed to judge, she’ll never vote for
me and Raider for the win. I can hear her already touting ethics and integrity,
and ensuring there isn’t the slightest appearance of partiality. Ugh! We’ll
never stand a chance.

So now I’m on a quest to dig up the truth. No sense in
wasting time picking out a costume if we don’t have a shot at winning.

One last piece of gossip. I heard the authors of the
Pampered Pets Mystery series are giving away a copy of their latest book,
Raiders of the Lost Bark. All you have to do is leave a comment on what type of
costume you think would be best for a St. Bernard puppy for a chance to win. Don’t forget to include your email address or they won’t
have a way to notify the winner!

Sparkle Abbey is the pseudonym of two mystery authors (Mary
Lee Woods and Anita Carter). They are friends and neighbors as well as
co-writers of the Pampered Pets Mystery Series. The pen name was created by
combining the names of their rescue pets--Sparkle (Mary Lee's cat) and Abbey
(Anita's dog).

If you want to make sure you're up on all the Sparkle Abbey news, stop by their
website and sign up for updates at sparkleabbey.com.

We were blessed to have a basset hound named Raisin Lucille Ball Coxon. On Halloween we would dress her in a Pumpkin costume and she would go Trick or Treating with the kids. Our neighbors were just as excited to see her as they werethe kids. robeader53@yahoo.com

I never dressed up any of my dogs, but my granddog did have a t-shirt once. A Rotty is not the easiest dog to get any clothes on. This would be a hard contest to judge cause they would all be so cute! jawdance@yahoo.com

Dog parks can be wonderful additions to a community, whether as an inclusion to an existing community park or as a stand-alone, dog specific park. People who are thinking about building a dog park should be aware that there are many pitfalls to be encountered along the way. Alldogsbigandsmall.com

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We are the characters--major and minor--who inhabit the pages of some of your favorite cozy mysteries.We're coming out from between the covers and welcoming you into our lives.So grab a nice cuppa, settle in, and learn what happens when our authors aren't looking.